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AnnouncementHappy New Year from us (Justin + Kathleen) to you! $2.95 flat-rate domestic shipping on all teethers and rattles :: $5.95 flat-rate domestic shipping on everything else :: rush options available at checkout

GIVING BACK | we donate to Peace Corps youth development projects for every item sold; you help us circle the earth with smiles

TRUE ECO-FRIENDLY HEIRLOOM KEEPSAKES | individually handmade in the USA by our team of five humans, sustainably harvested and American grown hardwoods, homegrown organic finish, expert and caring craftsmanship, we love what we do and that shines through in every aspect of our family business

Announcement

Last updated on Dec 27, 2018

Happy New Year from us (Justin + Kathleen) to you! $2.95 flat-rate domestic shipping on all teethers and rattles :: $5.95 flat-rate domestic shipping on everything else :: rush options available at checkout

GIVING BACK | we donate to Peace Corps youth development projects for every item sold; you help us circle the earth with smiles

TRUE ECO-FRIENDLY HEIRLOOM KEEPSAKES | individually handmade in the USA by our team of five humans, sustainably harvested and American grown hardwoods, homegrown organic finish, expert and caring craftsmanship, we love what we do and that shines through in every aspect of our family business

About

That's us! We're a family that loves being outside exploring and cooking homemade meals in the kitchen.

We finish our toys with our own blend of organic camelina oil (grown on Kathleen's family's land) and beeswax.

Our woodshop is a classic old red dairy barn we renovated in 2016. Justin loves spending late nights in his office!

We're passionate about creating safe and natural keepsake toys that are gentle on Mother Earth + guaranteed to last.

grow, learn, and imagine with timeless heirloom toys!

Not long ago we returned to the U.S. after living in West Africa for two years serving as Peace Corps Volunteers. It was exhilarating, challenging, and life-altering. Surrounded again by the modern luxuries of life in America, we looked at one another and said "Now what?"

Justin’s always been passionate about crafting wood, and Kathleen’s been in love with all things handmade for as long as she can remember. Add parenthood to the mix, and the epiphany came almost immediately: creating handmade wooden toys is what we were meant to do. And so it began.

Most mornings start at 6:00am. We get a few hours of shop time and computer work in before the little ones awake. Then it's good morning kisses, a hearty family breakfast, and planning the rest of the day.

“Did you see that note about rushing the personalized block order to ship tomorrow?”

“Yep, I'm on it. Do you want me to be on Daddy duty after nap time? That way you can work on your to-do list.” And so on...

The woodshop hums all day long with the happy sounds of toy making, reggae music, and laughing little ones. Our home office is the scene of quick ins-and-outs as we reply to emails, prep orders for shipping, and jot down those eureka! moments when new design ideas pop into mind. In between all of that we’re playing hide-and-seek, reading books, and chasing after the little ones chasing after the kitties.

Smiling Tree isn’t just a family business; it’s a defining part of our family. We keep the personal, the passionate, and the eco-handmade touch in every aspect of Smiling Tree. From sustainably harvested American hardwoods, to our homegrown organic camelina oil/beeswax finish, to natural cotton drawstring bags made-in-the-USA, we ensure every aspect of Smiling Tree is respectful of and gentle on mother earth. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

We believe that when people are kind, honest, hard-working, respectful of mother earth, and doing something they love, then great things can happen. Life is great for us, indeed.

Privacy policy

If you ship to the EU or offer your listings to buyers there, you're required to have a GDPR-compliant privacy policy by 25 May, 2018.

Privacy policy

Information We Collect

To fulfill your order, you must provide us with certain information (which you authorized Etsy to provide to us), such as your name, email address, postal address, payment information, and the details of the product that you’re ordering. You may also choose to provide us with additional personal information (for a personalized or custom order, for example), if you contact us directly.

Why We Need Your Information and How We Use It

I rely on a number of legal bases to collect, use, and share your information, including:

-as needed to provide our services, such as when we use your information to fulfill your order, to settle disputes, or to provide customer support;
-when you have provided your affirmative consent, which you may revoke at any time, such as by signing up for our mailing list;
-if necessary to comply with a legal obligation or court order or in connection with a legal claim, such as retaining information about your purchases if required by tax law; and
-as necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests, if those legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights or interests, such as 1) providing and improving our services.
We use your information to provide the services you requested and in our legitimate interest to improve our services; and 2) Compliance with the Etsy Seller Policy and Terms of Use. We use your information as necessary to comply with our obligations under the Etsy Seller Policy and Terms of Use.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

Information about our customers is important to our business. We share your personal information for very limited reasons and in limited circumstances, as follows:
-Etsy: We share information with Etsy as necessary to provide you my services and comply with my obligations under both the Etsy Seller Policy and Etsy Terms of Use.
-Service providers: We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to our shop, such as delivery companies. We will share your personal information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these services.
-Business transfers: If we sell or merge our business, we may disclose your information as part of that transaction, only to the extent permitted by law.
-Compliance with laws: We may collect, use, retain, and share your information if we have a good faith belief that it is reasonably necessary to: (a) respond to legal process or to government requests; (b) enforce our agreements, terms and policies; (c) prevent, investigate, and address fraud and other illegal activity, security, or technical issues; or (d) protect the rights, property, and safety of our customers, or others.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to provide you with my services and as described in my Privacy Policy. However, we may also be required to retain this information to comply with my legal and regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements. We generally keep your data for 4 years.

Transfers of Personal Information Outside the EU

We may store and process your information through third-party hosting services in the US and other jurisdictions. As a result, we may transfer your personal information to a jurisdiction with different data protection and government surveillance laws than your jurisdiction. If we am deemed to transfer information about you outside of the EU, we rely on Privacy Shield as the legal basis for the transfer, as Google Cloud is Privacy Shield certified.

Your Rights

If you reside in certain territories, including the EU, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. While some of these rights apply generally, certain rights apply only in certain limited cases. We describe these rights below:

-Access. You may have the right to access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the contact information below.
-Change, restrict, delete. You may also have rights to change, restrict our use of, or delete your personal information. Absent exceptional circumstances (like where we are required to store data for legal reasons) we will generally delete your personal information upon request.
-Object. You can object to (i) our processing of some of your information based on our legitimate interests and (ii) receiving marketing messages from us after providing your express consent to receive them. In such cases, we will delete your personal information unless we have compelling and legitimate grounds to continue using that information or if it is needed for legal reasons.
-Complain. If you reside in the EU and wish to raise a concern about our use of your information (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), you have the right to do so with your local data protection authority.

How to Contact Us

For purposes of EU data protection law, I, Kathleen Batalden Smith, am the data controller of your personal information. If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact me at kathleen@smilingtreetoys.com. Alternately, you may mail us at:

Smiling Tree Toys LLC
37574 County Road 11
Lamberton, MN 56152
USA

Etsy prohibits the use of buyer information for unsolicited messages. See our Privacy Policy for more info.

More information

Last updated onSep 13, 2017

Frequently asked questions

Gift wrapping and packaging

All items come in either cotton drawstring bags or clear poly bags. We are happy to include a handwritten gift note with your order. We do not offer gift wrapping.

Custom and personalized orders

We cannot offer refunds or free replacements if you want to change the personalization, but we have already engraved according to your original order details (even if you emailed us right away after purchase).

We can only revise the personalization details if we have not already engraved the item.

Wholesale availability

Our teethers are available at wholesale pricing. Contact us at hello@smilingtreetoys.com.

Sending as a gift

We are happy to ship directly to the recipient. Enter the recipient's name and address in the "shipping address" section. We never include printed receipts in packages, so the recipient will not see any pricing info. If you'd like us to include a short, handwritten gift message, enter that in the "Notes" box at checkout.